A Chinese mom who copped a guilty plea in the college admissions scandal was sentenced Monday to time served after being held in a Spanish jail for over five months — and after relatives described her as a devoted parent who once washed her son’s teammates’ underwear by hand.
Xiaoning Sui, 49, admitted to paying $400,000 to notorious scam mastermind Rick Singer to get her son into UCLA as a scholarship-winning soccer recruit — despite the fact that he never played the sport competitively.
“I set a horrible example for my child and I was a bad influence. I promise that I will never do anything like that again,” Sui said through an interpreter, during a sentencing hearing held over video because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sui, who had been living in Canada since 2015, was arrested in Madrid in September and was held there until her extradition to the US in February, when she pleaded guilty to bribery.
While awaiting extradition, Sui was locked in her cell for 15 hours a day in conditions that were “harsh, isolating, and far more punitive” than what other parents in the college admissions scandal experienced in US prisons, her lawyers said.
“It was a very isolating and anxiety-creating experience,” attorney Martin Weinberg told Judge Douglas Woodlock.
In a letter, her sister told the court she is a devoted mom who always went to see her son play the sport he actually competed in — tennis — and even helped scrub the team’s underwear “by hand” when they were on the road and had no washing machines.
Prosecutors had also called for a sentence of time-served, noting that Sui immediately sought to take responsibility for her actions.
Weinberg told The Post, “We are enormously grateful that Judge Woodlock accepted the sentencing recommendations and ended Ms. Sui’s legal case with a sentence of time served.”
Sui is among nearly two dozen parents who have pleaded guilty in the sprawling scandal. Others include “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman, who served 11 days in prison after paying Singer $15,000 to help jack up her daughter’s SAT scores.
Singer ended up cooperating with the government in its investigation into the bribery scandal, which prosecutors dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.”
Another group of parents is fighting the charges, including former “Full House” star Lori Loughlin, who is accused with her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, of paying Singer $500,000 go get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as rowing recruits.
With Post wires